you're watching our t.v. tonight loyalist clashes shake northern ireland yet again after belfast council's decision to fire the union flag from city hall only eighteen days a year. while the government forces chase militants out of a key city with the help of french military airstrikes after president francois hollande stated intervention in the area will continue for as long as necessary. and washington says it will reassign its afghan mission to assisting local forces from the spring sparking speculation that it might be planning to keep up its military muscle in that chaotic country.

just after midnight here now thanks for joining us for a viewer watching around the world my name is kevin now in our top story around a dozen police have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist clashes in northern ireland tensions been running high for more than a month after belfast council decided to fly the union flag above city hall for only eighteen days a year r.t. sarah ferguson the province for us looks into what else is feeling the unrest as well recreational rioting that's what some people are calling it. has it been taking place all across the past in the past weeks many years and pockets violence breaking out. the crisis is on the other side many of them young faces covered as police come under attack with rocks and petrol bombs mark easton's

the director of the east belfast mission creep is working with young protesters to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are doing it because it's sexier than a playstation you know young girls are doing a girl's name with young children we've seen on the streets i don't think a fully realised what their actions can result. in some way. and yet there's nothing for me. on the surface and this is being about the decision at the beginning of december to limit the number of days the union flag flies at city hall but in what's been the most sustained outbreak of violence since the one nine hundred ninety eight good friday peace agreement and it's clear that the problems run much deeper one of the protesters here asking.

them. to start. on the street to protest against. a nation and its banks a very terrible flag. you know but when he wanted also it on the streets for his own actions. we can make for do you think the protesters would predict that any kind of compromise when it comes to this is the fly in the flag of it's the flag turn out said. we know we're not going to get back up to normal action because it's the majority really. only unionist horns now to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done there'll be no quick fixes here i don't think there's any silver bullet i think there's so many different things need to happen economic. investment political investment

community investment by and by all the stakeholders in these communities to try to resolve the wide raft of issues that are a blight here say far there's been over one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions of pounds spent in policing these riots and in lost business revenue there these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching this is a new generation bringing file and back onto the streets of belfast it's a far cry from the darker days of northern ireland's conflicts that doesn't make it any less trouble a. surfer. fell fast. for the christian science monitor who told me that the rest is being flared up by the changing demographics. the protests. despite the appearance of some groups

such as the ulster peoples form no one is entirely sure exactly what it is that the protesters want northern ireland in general in belfast in particular have traditionally being protestant unionists loyalists or if you like to put areas and the recent census results showed that northern ireland no longer has a unionist one it's more a sort of fifty fifty situation i mean what can city whole do is got itself into a real rock and a hard place isn't it if they overturn the decision it's going to look like more brawls take it over potentially cause a flare up on the other side this stuff going to get over this account of they certainly can't undo the decision. first or but it's deep highly unlikely that irish nationalists councillors would vote to raise the flag and second of all even if they could be convinced to do so in the name of public order i think it would look very bad for the council to. constitute a block down of the face of violence so what's your prognosis which way it's going to go you know over the coming months is it going to come that it was going to go

from bad to worse it's very difficult to say just today we've had and if not do we get drawn into the into the world when we could get much much worse. obviously also a suspect device so i just wonder if you have viable small explosive was true in light of belfast today no it's not yet clear who planted. these are not good signs . a french pilot been killed in fighting in mali where france continues to launch airstrikes against islam is militants in the west african state comes after mali's government troops chased rebels out of the key central town of qana aided by the french military the u.n. security council called for a speedy deployment of international forces to battle the rebels from sea from north of the country last april and have made significant advances since president alarmed announced friday that the intervention in mali would quote last as long as necessary from space independent journalist robert hunny believes the french foreign policy the conflicts of so. i think that as long as the french people

aren't to gaza by the consequences of this sort of intervention they generally favorite because there's a great military tradition in france and they've grown accustomed to interfering other people's countries but if you if the minute it starts to get nasty i think you'll find they'll be a very quick a reversal of public opinion these sort of islamic extremists they're very tough soldiers and they've grown tougher over the last twenty years and if france starts to find that these people have been armed as a result of the intervention in libya and all the arms of the swilling about in the in the sahara as a result of that intervention ironically instigated by france then they're going to find it's a very dangerous place to intervene in mali as requested help and they get it instantly when the central african republic requested help from the french forces there they were told are no we can't interfere to tell any particular regime were

neutral. it to do even if you had wanted to destroy the credibility of france and the western countries over the last five or ten years you couldn't have done a better job by the absurd contradictions in what they do. america's to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch instead to a support role this spring the announcement came from u.s. president barack obama after a round of talks with his afghan counterpart and what's being hailed now as the last chapter of the u.s. afghan mission but is gone a teacher can report summary could evolve into the country looks set to rumble on the less during his election campaign president obama may have sounded very resolute to leave afghanistan in two thousand and fourteen but the white house is now negotiating terms to stay there the president said if u.s. forces stayed their role will be different but critics argue it's an attempt to green growth and the military presence which both the majority of americans and

afghans a pope's michael listen to what president obama said about the mission after twenty fourteen i think. you know although obviously we're still. two years away. i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission and a very different task and a very different. for the us if we're able to come to. know one of the key points of the agreement that the president mentioned there they key point probably is immunity from prosecution for u.s. troops so that the afghans cannot prosecute any american soldier if they commit a crime that's the deal that the white house couldn't get from the iraqi government the u.s. wanted to keep some troops there but couldn't because of how we opposed the iraqis were to allowing the u.s. to further operate there with impunity but with homemade karzai it could be different he indicated that he is willing to give that immunity and that he's

willing to bargain besides he knows that he's in power because of the americans and many experts believe his government will collapse in no time after americans leave but whatever post twenty fourteen deal comes out of their negotiations it might not be easy for washington to sell it to the american people because despite the administration trying to present of ghana's that is a success story in many ways they see it as a failure and don't understand why their troops should stay any further policymakers in washington can't really come out and say that they don't want to walk away just just pack up and leave from such an important geopolitical position now that they've spent billions and billions of dollars to have a presence there but such chill political calculations may not sound very appealing to the american people at a time when the country's head over heels in debt. he's been hearing how despite the slogans and ads of the afghan government no position to take full control. the american government is sort of caught in

a paradox it didn't want to give up afghanistan it wanted to use it as a strategic base but can't win a military victory they have to begin to draw down whether they will leave completely i don't think so so now you have cars i hear in washington meeting with obama he is extremely vulnerable but he is seen within the afghan population as nothing but an extension of the power of the occupiers and the afghan people like all occupied people resent the occupiers and they resent those who are their collaborators so karzai from time to time sounds like a nationalist he stands up any how is a little bit against american atrocities and again trying to play for domestic consumption but at the end of the day karzai is seen as just that as a collaborator with the occupation a very rich collaborator so he may have a way an exit plan of the jonah scripted out but i think he knows that without foreign occupation his government's days are very very precarious.

well now that they have come presidents washington trips done and dusted the people of new york they think of that country's come to stand. there. and be. that wonderful. it's all about the views of the decade long invasion from the streets of the big apple coming your way but later in the program but also to find out if the premise to support the celtics the case struggling manufacturers said as well. crime is a plague of the big cities but in a tiny arkansas town of twenty five thousand it is really getting out of hand pure gold as a property crime index of more than double the national average and rape burglary

and assault are also way above average poor poor gold is a dangerous place to live in but what's the answer to living in constant fear of criminals well the mayor thinks that the answer to that problem is to live in constant fear of the government how logical the mayor and police chief have a doorstop plan to send out police patrols with fifteen's and full swat armor to i guess intimidate the local population into submission well actually the plan is for them to stand around it ask people an important question ask them to show id the answer to crime isn't a police state sending guys out with automatic weapons and body armor around just to check people's i.d. like it's the berlin wall or something won't do anything a guy who breaks into your house for crystal meth money isn't going to be affected by this only the good average citizens will have to show an armed thug their id just to go buy milk but that's just my opinion.

crumbling roads and bridges and a flickering electrical grid america's infrastructure is creaking and it's becoming a big problem to they've no mother nature has played a hand in wrecking supplies recently the government's earmarking money for almost anything other than energy as we report i have found. over the past decade america has spent hundreds of billions in the name of national security wars military intervention fighting terrorist and hunting online hackers meantime getting much less attention is a domestic danger lurking in and lighting up every corner of the country the u.s. power grid in recent months federal officials have warned that america's electric cables substations and transformers are not sufficiently secured and are vulnerable to attack by anyone with a weapon and some basic know how experts say the energy grid is also outdated and

antiquated unable to prevent outages from cascading in october superstorm sandy hit twenty four states causing some sixty three billion dollars in damage more than four and a half million people lost power and new york was left crippled by massive floods leaving much of the city including half of the big apple plunged into darkness. two months after the storm the streets of downtown manhattan remain clogged with coops wires and heavy equipment because dozens of the city's iconic skyscrapers still rely on generators for power things like this going to months with major buildings . that does not occur in hong kong in shanghai. amsterdam because they have built systems designed to deal with the reality of nature so it is this cutting corners feeling to invest in you know most you know

when you reckon economy when it comes to america's electricity ninety percent of the grid is privately owned by utility companies beholden to investors. energy sector in the united states is law actually privately operated and. they have war. only by regulation own the federal government. regulation state and local governments though it will fall our grids to younger that is say there are many reasons not only financial and also the reasons really changes fast. if we want to change our safety our livelihood the changes aren't just limited to the grid engineers have warned

that many of america's bridges roads dams levees and power plants are in danger of crumbling if not repaired especially as sea levels continue rising even one bomb has nothing compared to what hurricane sandy did across the northeast a thousand miles of destruction there was a very very big natural event. and you noted. in the. truck.

when it was on the. health of the first time in georgia's modern history the country's lawmakers overturned president saakashvili to veto and set free two hundred political prisoners just a few of the very many and very story so i was showing like dot com. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says stopping iran from making a nuclear bomb will be his top priority if he wins the upcoming parliamentary vote the threat of an attack seems so real in fact to many israelis that they're already snapping up gas masks and renovating bomb shelters resulting spall asli a founder. mushroom clouds confusion hysteria this is israel's last day according to a young filmmaker who wants to shock his country into taking action i have created this morning to share my thoughts and my fears with the world about the potential

threat that is coming from iran if you ask me the same question two years ago i will say that people don't think about it so much but today it is different we can see that the majority here of israel are preparing this so i think most mentally grandparents are holocaust survivors from a mania a foreshadow he fears of what could come it took hitler six series to kill six million jews and it will take. all it's six minutes that's why and maybe some or many israelis are really uneasy fearing iran might be building a nuclear bomb and tehran isn't mincing its words threatening tel aviv it will teach it a listen if it tries to attack first morning is when missiles will make sure israel does not survive the center of israel is

a problem and that's where we have to move forward not only that we haven't got enough voters it's very very populated so everything that is falling in this area can cause casualties in two thousand and six during the second lebanon war rachel balmer ors and her family hid here from the katyusha rockets raining down from across the border she never imagined she'd be restocked. and for potentially more deadly consequences of course i'm afraid from the war from with iran because nobody wants war who want peace and now i have also some rain children five grandchildren and i'm afraid i'm afraid because my cells will go to the army there are soldiers in the air i don't want it the recent war with gaza was a chance for tel aviv to test its iron dome missile defense system but israelis are anxious in part because of widespread media coverage of just how unprepared for war

the country has many bomb shelters and residential buildings are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms while most of israel's arab citizens about a twenty percent of the population lacks shelters altogether as the chances of war start looking all too real the army says four times as many israelis are collecting state funded gas masks then they were several months ago i am a big concern it's not like i think they're going to be aware of. just. the side my fear is thinking and with impending doomsday predictions circling the country no one wants to be caught unprepared police fear r.t. television british clothing manufacturers are calling for support from the prime minister and government to be growing concerns over the lack of problems made in the u.k. but with more and more clothing being imported from overseas the task could be

tricky and that is laura smith report. it's got the british flag on it but all these clothes made in britain a quick look at the label shows they're not made in china or made in vietnam anywhere but here and down on the high streets the stories know if different you'd be hard pushed to find anything with a made in britain label on it in any shop a recent survey by a daily mail journalist found just one item in sixty three with a british made label but now david cameron and his ministers are being urged to back british from their hats to their socks and wear only british made clothes it's not impossible there are companies that still make clothes in the u.k. including the firm that's doing the urging private white p.c. but the vast majority of what we were ninety percent at the last count and including everything i'm wearing today is made abroad since two thousand and fifty

two percent of jobs in the textile industry have disappeared and we imported twelve and a half billion pounds worth more clothing than we export it last year even some companies that trade on their very british n'est don't manufacture here so even if david cameron and his colleagues did pledge only to buy british it's unlikely to revive britain's ailing textile industry. has washington been bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and was the entire mission justified in the first place lottie's resident hits the streets of new york. the obama administration has recently said that it's considering having no troops

in afghanistan after december of two thousand and fourteen is that a good thing a bad day or totally made up thing designed for political shenanigans this week let's talk about that do you even think he's going to do it he said that's a years ago and it didn't happen so don't buy it so why does he keep saying it if he doesn't mean it. to get people to like and their families will be happy but hopefully you know you finish what you started what did we start and what do we have to finish what is finishing mean. to capture or kill or. do you think that we've defined what and means it's tough because you know we don't know everything i think we need to have a world presence to maintain the why is it up to us to maintain a well presence why don't we just get out of everyone's business well that's a good idea too but if no if we don't do it nobody will and otherwise the world's going to go to war and we were in his stabilizing factor and until now and time it's been us but we're the ones causing all the wars. depends on your perspective i

guess i'm sort board more defending than attacking but don't you think that there are some people in the world that feel like america imposing its will on their countries just put america's will lose its freedom and democracy at its heart it's not a fanatical you don't think it's its own might be money and imperialism a little bit too i don't believe that it is imperialism. and what about money do you think that money might drive some of our reasons for a bowl of course but money is going to help everybody i don't think it's happening i i just came back from afghanistan so oh so you don't believe that he's really going to pull the troops away. entirely i think that i think that there are presence there is important and this war sustaining what we've done so far my opinion is that the reason we are over there is because of the wonderful oil and i don't have it's all about money and. that's

a marine as someone who puts your life on the line doesn't that make you mad it makes me really upset because we have a lot of marines that are dying each and every day in afghanistan you know and you know for god's sakes i can be next you know so it does make me pretty upset that he's promising something that he's not owning up to the bottom line is we're so used to having us troops all over the world up in everyone's business that we probably can't imagine us pulling out of anywhere and that makes americans the world's bullies whether we like it or not. and we stayed stateside next as well i mean martin gives us her take a washington's plans for the afghanistan mission in the late edition of breaking the set i'm kevin i want your moscow thank you for being with us tonight.

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any time anywhere. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food because you know how. i mean. i know that i'm setting the scene for me really messed up. in the old story so closely apologize if that. worst you were going to. the white house of the day the radio guy in fort lauderdale minestrone click they want you to watch closely because you've never seen anything like this i'm told. you know it's friday before you turn to fun and games keep watching there's

a few things that you should know today president obama's announcement that u.s. troops in afghanistan will assume a quote support role starting this spring and eventual pullout of all american forces by the end of twenty fourteen. you know what they say it sounds like a lie and looks like a lie then probably is a lie and a joint press conference with afghan president hamid karzai obama said this. afghanistan work afghan security peace prosperity and dignity and in pursuit of that future afghanistan will have a long term partner in the united states of america. long term partner indeed because the war is far from over you see this invasion was never about a victory to threaten country no this is about the complete destabilization of a region i mean just look at where afghanistan is it's sandwiched between pack.